Kaisipang Hudyo sa Exodo 31:18: Akeidat Yitzchak & Guide for the Perplexed

It is customary to compare the unknown to the known in order to better understand the unknown. G-d is referred to in scripture as possessing limbs, although He is purely spiritual, in order to make some of His actions more comprehensible. "As a shepherd leads a flock" (Isaiah 40,11), or "Your heavens are the work of Your fingers" (Psalms 8,4). Rabbi Yudan stated, "Great is the power of the prophets who have described the power of the Almighty in human terms, as it is said in Daniel 8,16, "I heard a human voice" (a voice sounding like the voice of man). The right to describe the creation of man as a fusion of dust and spirit, a joining of matter and form, is also based on such considerations. The known is described in order to make it easier to understand the unknown or the less well known.

Instances of organs of locomotion being applied to the Creator occur as follows:—“My footstool” (Isa. 66:1); “the place of the soles of my feet” (Ezek. 43:7). For examples of organs of touch applied to God, comp. “the hand of the Lord” (Exod. 9:3); “with the finger of God” (ib. 31:18); “the work of thy fingers” (Ps. 8:4), “And thou hast laid thine hand upon me” (ib. 139:5); “The arm of the Lord” (Isa. 53:1); “Thy right hand, O Lord” (Exod. 15:6). In instances like the following, organs of speech are attributed to God: “The mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isa. 1:20); “And He would open His lips against thee” (Job 11:5); “The voice of the Lord is powerful” (Ps. 29:4); “And his tongue as a devouring fire” (Isa. 30:27). Organs of sensation are attributed to God in instances like the following: “His eyes behold, His eyelids try” (Ps. 11:4); “The eyes of the Lord which run to and fro” (Zech. 4:10); “Bow down thine ear unto me, and hear” (2 Kings 19:16); “You have kindled a fire in my nostril” (Jer. 17:5). Of the inner parts of the human body only the heart is figuratively applied to God, because “heart” is a homonym, and denotes also “intellect”; it is besides the source of animal life. In phrases like “my bowels are troubled for him” (Jer. 31:20); “The sounding of thy bowels” (Isa. 63:15), the term “bowels” is used in the sense of “heart”; for the term “bowels” is used both in a general and in a specific meaning; it denotes specifically “bowels,” but more generally it can be used as the name of any inner organ, including “heart.” The correctness of this argument can be proved by the phrase “And thy law is within my bowels” (Ps. 40:9), which is identical with “And thy law is within my heart.” For that reason the prophet employed in this verse the phrase “my bowels are troubled” (and “the sounding of thy bowels”); the verb hamah is in fact used more frequently in connection with “heart,” than with any other organ; comp. “My heart maketh a noise (homeh) in me” (Jer. 4:19). Similarly, the shoulder is never used as a figure in reference to God, because it is known as a mere instrument of transport, and also comes into close contact with the thing which it carries. With far greater reason the organs of nutrition are never attributed to God: they are at once recognized as signs of imperfection.

Similarly we explain, “And the writing was the writing of God” (Exod. 32:16); the relation in which the writing stood to God has already been defined in the words “written with the finger of God” (ib. 31:18), and the meaning of this phrase is the same as that of “the work of thy fingers” (Ps. 8:4). this being said of the heavens; of the latter it has been stated distinctly that they were made by a word; comp. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made” (ib. 33:6). Hence you learn that in the Bible, the creation of a thing is figuratively expressed by terms denoting “word” and “speech” The same thing which according to one passage has been made by the word, is represented in another passage as made by the “finger of God.” The phrase “written by the finger of God” is therefore identical with “written by the word of God”; and if the latter phrase had been used, it would have been equal to “written by the will and desire of God?”